Today's Update From The Waugh Zone Is Titled `BIG MAC HAPPY MEAL'

by Paul Waugh | Politics

We’ve had a lot of surreal sights in this campaign and today there will be yet another one as Gordon Brown joins John McDonnell to push the Remain campaign. The Shadow Chancellor was for years a vociferous critic of Brown’s push to make New Labour more friendly to the City, his private finance deals and other policies.

But today they will make the case that quitting the EU will put Britain’s industrial cities at risk of further decline. The pair of them will even share a pie and pint afterwards and watch the England match together (a love of football is at least one thing they have in common), I’m told.

One former Downing Street aide to Brown (and to Ed Miliband) is Stewart, now Lord, Wood. He’s blogged for HuffPost on the 8 things Brexit needs to achieve to be a success. Spoiler alert: he thinks the chances of all eight being achieved are ‘close to zero’. It’s a piece that’s already won plaudits from across the spectrum: read it in full HERE.

As for Labour, those tensions continue behind the scenes. Some Labour MPs left Parliament last night fearing the worst: Brexit plus a swift general election that could wipe out unto 70 of their seats.

Today is also the Tooting by-election and it ought to provide some good news for Labour. Yet those on the ground aren’t exactly confident a win will be easy. They know Sadiq Khan’s majority was slim in 2015 and despite the impressive London Assembly performance in Wandsworth, could demographics catch up with the party? One MP tells me how much the seat has changed: many Labour canvassers knocking on doors in the gentrified streets are greeted with Filipino nannies or cleaners who say ‘Sorry, my boss is out’.

* Paul Waugh Is The Executive Editor, HuffPost, UK